GOP official rages at “demonic” Christmas drag show because kids might be near the building it’s in

This AG was not elected to any office, he was handpicked and given his job by DeathSantis. Both are Christian nationalist who feel it is great to force their religion on others even as they do not live by their own church doctrines in any way. They seem to feel forcing the public to live by their church doctrines or what ever view they think their god endorses is perfectly fine regardless if others disagree. They are the first to scream the loudest if their rituals or they think their rights to oppress others is interfered with, but they also seem unable to give others the same rights they demand for themselves. Hugs

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/11/gop-official-rages-at-demonic-christmas-drag-show-because-kids-might-be-near-the-building-its-in/?utm_source=lgbtqnation&utm_medium=directlink&utm_campaign=directlink&utm_content=GOP+official+rages+at+%E2%80%9Cdemonic%E2%80%9D+Christmas+drag+show+because+kids+might+be+near+the+building+it%E2%80%99s+in

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says the show must be cancelled because it “mocks… the Christian faith.”

Molly Sprayregen (She/Her)November 10, 2025, 11:00 am EST

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks about the arrest of 28 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang during a press conference at the Stephen Saboda Training Center near Daytona Beach, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. | © Nigel Cook/News-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) is urging the Pensacola City Council to shut down a Christmas-themed drag show, which he has deemed “demonic” and “harmful” to children, despite how it is exclusively for adults over the age of 18.

The city’s Saenger Theatre plans to host “A Drag Queen Christmas” on December 23. The website says fans should “expect a fabulous remix of classic Christmas hits, dazzling themed variety performances, and interactive moments to share your Christmas cheer.”

A letter from Uthmeier claimed the show “openly mocks one of the most sacred holidays in the Christian faith” and expressed horror that some of the queens evoke “satanic imagery” in their outfits or characters. He also decried the fact that it will be playing at the same time as the city’s family-centered Winterfest.

“So, while Penscola children are taking pictures with Santa, men dressed as garish women in demonic costumes will be engaged in obscene behavior mere feet away,” he ranted, even though the drag show will take place inside a theater where the children at the festival won’t be able to see it.

The Pensacola city attorney has reportedly refused to cancel the show, saying it would violate the drag show production company’s First Amendment rights and the city’s contract with the theater’s management company.

Uthmeier, however, said the city – which owns the theater – has a legal right to supersede the management company’s decision to put on the show if it deems a performance detrimental to public health or safety. He said the drag show meets this criterion because it will be taking place near children at Winterfest, even though they won’t be able to see it.

“While the First Amendment safeguards freedom of expression, it does not require a city to platform and endorse disgusting, obscene content that denigrates its residents’ religious beliefs,” Uthmeier concluded.

He claimed it may even amount to religious discrimination and could cause legal issues for the city, especially if one of the “deranged performers” were “to expose themselves to the kids” nearby. The preposterous idea that LGBTQ+ people are inherently a danger to children has long been used by the right to fearmonger and stir anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.

The letter comes after a group of churches in the city launched a campaign to pressure the Pensacola City Council to cancel the drag show. The controversy has caused an uproar in the community, the Pensacola News Journal reported, where pro- and anti-LGBTQ+ residents continue to clash over whether the drag show should be permitted to go on.

At a packed and contentious city council meeting in early October, resident Jermaine Williams called out the hypocrisy of those claiming to oppose the show on religious grounds.

“I mean, we see how y’all vote,” Williams said. “Half of these people that spoke today wouldn’t know Jesus if they stared him in the face.”

Another resident, Stephen McCollum, gushed that drag queens are “more than entertainers.”

“They’re small business owners. They’re advocates and they’re educators who use creativity to uplift others and welcome all. They welcome all, demonstrating that this art form is more than just a performance. It’s a form of connection, and it’s a form of community, and it’s a form of hope.”

Uthmeier has long used his position to vilify and terrorize LGBTQ+ people. Earlier this year, he launched a crusade against a Life Time Fitness in Palm Beach Gardens after discovering that the private business had a trans inclusive policy. State law requires people use facilities aligned with their sex assigned at birth, but that does not apply to private businesses.

Uthmeier, however, claimed otherwise in a letter sent to the gym. He falsely claimed that trans inclusion leads to “assaults, exploitation, and fear” and that he was merely doing this to protect women and girls.

Even after Life Time said it would comply with his demands, Uthmeier posted a video in which he visited the gym in person to make sure they are “not allowing trans women into women’s bathrooms, not in Florida,” and “actually following the law.”

“It appears they are,” he reported to followers, though it’s unclear how he could have confirmed this without major privacy violations of the individuals entering and exiting the locker rooms there.

This past October, Uthmeier also filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a parental rights activist who dubiously claims her child’s middle school helped her child secretly transition. She has now petitioned the Supreme Court to take her case.

Uthmeier’s brief claims government officials across the United States “are fundamentally altering the upbringing of children and keeping parents in the dark” with “secret transition” policies.

These policies do not involve schools encouraging students to be trans or transition, but rather to support any students who willingly communicate that their gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth and to allow the student to choose when to share that private information with their parents. For some students with anti-trans parents, telling them could be dangerous.

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Molly Sprayregen is the Deputy Editor of LGBTQ Nation and has been reporting on queer stories for almost a decade. She has written for Them, Out, Forbes, Into, Huffington Post, and others. She has a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from Northwestern University.

Our friend Angie has suffered a real medical emergency and I want to share it with all our community.

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Project 2025 Was Just the Start. Heritage Foundation Has an Anti-LGBTQ+ Scheme for 2026, Too

https://www.them.us/story/heritage-foundation-project-2025-2026-plan-trump-administration

The plan appears to oppose trans people and same-sex marriage.

By Abby Monteil

December 23, 2025

Tom Williams/Getty Images

After spending this year working to implement as much of its gargantuan right-wing policy agenda, Project 2025, as possible, the Heritage Foundation has unveiled its anti-LGBTQ+ goals for 2026.

Over the past month, the far-right think tank has been preparing for next year, releasing an ad campaign and doing multiple interviews about its plans. The activity has brought renewed attention on Heritage Foundation’s 2025-2026 policy priorities, which were titled “Restoring America’s Promise” when they were released in March. At the time, the group named nine key priorities, including “root[ing] out the deep state” and “counter[ing] the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].”

The bulk of its anti-LGBTQ+ goals lie in the priority titled “Put Family First,” in which the Heritage Foundation declares that “every child conceived deserves to be born to a married mother and father who will love, guide, and protect them throughout their lives.”

The organization goes on to claim that “family breakdown and rampant abortion tears at the soul of our country and saps it of strength and moral authority,” while “radical ideologies that deny social and biological truths about sexual embodiment, marriage, and unborn life poison our courts, our culture, and our laws.”

“The Heritage enterprise will advance policies at the state and federal level to restore the nuclear family to the center of American life and to reduce both the demand and supply for abortion at all stages of human development,” it concludes. This language appears to oppose same-sex marriage given its emphasis on children being born to a married father and mother. It also appears to oppose transgender identity given its condemnation of ideologies that “deny social and biological truths about sexual embodiment” — this falls inline with a longstanding Heritage Foundation fight against trans people.

Elsewhere, the Heritage Foundation indicates its anti-trans views in a priority titled “Expand Education Freedom,” in which the group declares that the education system is “failing our children” through “the scourge of woke ideas like critical theory and radical gender ideology.” The terminology “radical gender ideology” is often used by conservatives to refer to trans and nonbinary identities.

The Heritage Foundation has been around since 1973, when it was founded by conservatives who found President Richard Nixon too liberal and feared both fiscal liberalism and federal government expansion. It has been consistent in its campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights, from consulting with then-governor Mitt Romney to figure out ways around preventing the legalization of gay marriage from being implemented in Massachusetts to lobbying against Title IX protections for trans students implemented during the Obama administration.

More recently, the organization has made headlines for its 920-page policy blueprint Project 2025, which presents a far-right Christian vision for the second Trump administration that includes several anti-trans measures, as well as the dismantling of the Department of Education and undoing other federal checks and balances. Although the Heritage Foundation has been releasing regular “Mandate for Leadership” blueprints ahead of incoming presidential administrations since the 1980s, Project 2025 has received considerable attention given that the group staffed and advised the first Trump administration (in July 2024, a CNN review found that at least 140 people working for Trump were involved with the Heritage Foundation). One of Project 2025’s architects, Russell Vought, currently runs the Office of Management and Budget.

Following late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary removal in September, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr seemingly confirmed speculation that the Trump administration’s actions are a part of Project 2025. At the time, Glee star Kevin McHale shared an X post stating that “This was all in Project 2025,” after reposting another X post that framed right-wing attacks on media — which also include the Trump administration’s lawsuit against 60 Minutes, The New York Times, and Wall Street Journal — as First Amendment assaults. In response, Carr — who wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the FCC — shared a GIF of Jack Nicholson nodding in apparent confirmation.

As a recent The 19th report pointed out, the second Trump administration has fulfilled a number of Project 2025’s anti-LGBTQ+ directives, including purging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) data on gender identity and cutting federal funds for gender-affirming care.

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Abby Monteil is a New York-based writer. Her work has also appeared in The Daily Beast, Insider, Elite Daily, Thrillist, and others. … Read More

The 2025 LGBTQ Year in Review: Lows, More Lows and Rumblings of Hope

https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/the-2025-lgbtq-year-in-review-lows

Here are Uncloseted Media’s picks for the most newsworthy moments for the LGBTQ community this year.

Nico DiAlesandro

Dec 27, 2025

Photo by Canva

2025 has been filled with relentless and unprecedented attacks against the LGBTQ community in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies have spilled over to countries abroad, including heading north to some conservative Canadian provinces like Alberta.

Despite this, there have been moments of hope. Here is Uncloseted Media’s 2025 LGBTQ year in review.

Jan. 1

Liechtenstein’s Marriage Act, passed in 2024, officially takes effect, opening marriage to same-sex couples and aligning the microstate with 21 other European nations that already recognize same-sex marriage.

Jan. 7

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Meta.

Meta introduces new rules to their platforms. They remove their third-party fact-checking program and roll back hate speech restrictions, which allows anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to flourish. A report by Uncloseted Media identifies users who spew trans and homophobic language. One user wrote, “Look at this disgusting piece of fag shit here !” Another told someone to go to “the insane asylum where you belong, tranny freak.” Both of these comments are still up on the platform.

Jan. 20

Trump signs executive orders. Photo by The White House.

On the first day of his second term, President Trump signs an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order forces federal agencies to treat sex as a fixed male and female binary “assigned at conception,” calls for “gender” to be scrubbed from federal guidance, halts federal funding for gender-affirming care and mandates trans women in prison to be sent to male facilities. Trump also issues a stop-work order for PEPFAR, the biggest HIV/AIDS relief program in the world. This kicks off a broader pattern of cuts to HIV prevention and research.

Over the next three months, Trump continues his attacks on the LGBTQ community by signing another executive order that bans trans women and girls from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. He also directs agencies to curb gender-affirming care for anyone under 19 and to strip funding from schools that allow social transition, inclusive bathrooms or the use of affirming names and pronouns.

Jan. 23

Same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land in Thailand, making it the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality and equal adoption rights for gay couples.

Jan. 27

The Idaho House passes a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to revisit and overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, signaling a renewed appetite to attack marriage equality at the federal level.

Feb. 6

Australia amends its federal Criminal Code to add sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status as protected characteristics in hate-crime law. This creates stronger penalties for perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes across the country.

Feb. 13

Sam Nordquist, a trans man from Minnesota, is found dead in Upstate New York after a woman he met online kidnapped and tortured him for weeks in a hotel room. Seven people connected to his death have been charged with murder. Sam’s friend, Jax Seeger, spoke to Uncloseted following the tragedy:

“From my understanding, they came out and said it wasn’t a hate crime … and part of their reasoning was because one or two of the suspects self-identified within the [LGBTQ] community. … Like, you can’t say that just because they identified as LGBTQ, they’re incapable of committing a hate crime. Sammy wasn’t just physically abused. He was psychologically abused and they didn’t go into what that consisted of, but I think that’s something to keep in mind. As well as just the level of abuse you know? Trans people deserve the same respect and the same love as everyone else.”

The week after our interview with Seeger, prosecutors upgrade the charges against Nordquist’s accused killers to first-degree murder.

Feb. 14

The Stonewall National Monument. Photo by TheCatalyst31.

The National Park Service (NPS) erases mentions of transgender people from the Stonewall memorial, furthering conservative efforts to push “LGB” without the “T.” A few months later, NPS would go on to remove mentions of bisexuals as well.

Feb. 25

Mexico City Pride 2025. Photo by Wotancito.

Mexico City’s Congress approves a resolution to reform the Law for the Recognition and Attention of LGBTTTI+ Persons. This move effectively recognizes nonbinary people.

Feb. 28

Kim Reynolds in 2024. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs SF 418 into law. This move officially removes “gender identity” from the Iowa Civil Rights Act’s list of protected classes in housing, employment and public accommodations. Iowa becomes the first state to remove civil rights from a previously protected group.

March 27

Gov. Spencer Cox announces that Utah will become the first state to ban LGBTQ pride flags in government buildings and public schools, effective May 7. While the move is framed as a “neutrality” measure, it is widely seen as part of a broader effort to erase public displays of queer identity. In protest, the Utah Pride Center unveils what it calls “the world’s largest transgender flag” in front of Utah’s State Capitol building in Salt Lake City.

April 4

A conversion therapy ban in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, goes into effect. This makes it illegal for therapists and religious leaders to practice conversion therapy on gay and trans people. In a media release, the NSW attorney general writes:

“This follows ongoing work by the NSW Government to progress reforms that ensure all members of our community feel valued, respected and equal.”

May 1

The Department of Health and Human Services releases a 409-page report on pediatric gender-affirming care, authored in part by a philosophy professor. The Trevor Project says the report advocates for conversion therapy for trans kids. In a press release, they write:

“This report not only rejects health care best practices for transgender people — it goes a step further by recommending conversion therapy, though under a new, rebranded name, ‘exploratory therapy’. Despite the report’s claims, this is, in fact, the same harmful practice of conversion therapy, just using friendlier language.”

May 6

Trump’s transgender military ban goes into effect. The change requires active trans service members to self-separate from the military or risk losing some of their Veterans Affairs benefits. Alaina Kupec, a retired transgender U.S. Navy lieutenant, says the decision punishes people who are qualified and want to serve the country:

“[This is] a really dark day for our country where basically we’re allowed to discriminate against a class of people.”

May 19

A Russian court fines Apple roughly $130,000 for four offenses, including the violation of Russia’s expanded “LGBT propaganda” law. The Russian law labels the “international LGBT movement” as extremist and treats queer visibility as a threat to state security. Anything that promotes “non-traditional sexual relations” violates the law.

May 30

Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court rules that residents can request an “X” gender marker on their birth certificates. This move explicitly recognizes nonbinary people and strengthens case law around self-determined gender in the U.S. territory.

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June 8

Photo by Ted Eytan.

Amid relentless attacks from the federal government, WorldPride takes place in Washington D.C. Ahead of the event, the African Human Rights Coalition calls for a boycott because of Trump’s swath of anti-LGBTQ policies. While roughly 1.2 million people attend, The Washington Post reports that the turnout is less than half of what organizers expected.

June 18

In a 6–3 decision, SCOTUS upholds Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormones. The ruling signals that similar bans in other Republican-controlled states are likely to stand, sharply narrowing access to medically recommended care for trans youth nationwide. Ten days after the ruling, five trans youth speak to Uncloseted Media, with Dylan Brandt, 20, saying:

“Lawmakers don’t need to be involved in my doctor visits. They have no right. They have no knowledge. … They’ve got a lane and they should stay in it.”

June 28

Budapest Pride 2025. Photo by Banned pride.

In defiance of a government ban on Pride events, roughly 100,000 people march the streets of Budapest, Hungary, to celebrate. The march was seen as both a showing of support for LGBTQ rights and a protest against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government.

July 16

Jenniffer González-Colón in 2016. Photo by the U.S. House Office of Photography.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, signs one of the harshest anti-trans health care laws in the northern hemisphere. The law bans gender-affirming care for anyone under 21 and threatens to cut off public funding for hospitals that don’t comply. It also threatens doctors with up to 15 years in prison and loss of licensure for violations. Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ+ Federation and GLAAD release a joint statement condemning the bill:

“Banning this care and stripping the rights of parents to make the best medical decisions for their families would create unbearable burdens for the most marginalized in Puerto Rico. Lawmakers must vote to protect access to health care that saves lives, and allow families to make private health care decisions that help loved ones be themselves, be safe, and to thrive.”

July 17

The Trump administration shuts down the LGBTQ suicide hotline, a life-saving resource that had received over 1.3 million calls, chats and texts since it launched in 2022. Genna Brown, a 16-year-old queer kid in North Carolina, who had used the hotline, spoke with Uncloseted Media about the impact it had on her mental health:

“I was an extremely self-loathing, suicidal kid who was under the impression that God hated me and I was gonna burn in hell for eternity. … Connecting with someone who gets it was really helpful. … Because at home, I was so isolated and I didn’t really interact with other queer people.”

July 18

Cuba’s National Assembly passes a law allowing trans people to change their legal gender without any requirement for genital surgery. In a post on X, Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez writes that the new law “will allow the country to have a modern civil registry” provided by “the issuance of digital documents with full validity and efficiency.”

July 29

In a move hailed by human rights groups, the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia strikes down colonial-era laws criminalizing “buggery,” effectively decriminalizing consensual same-sex intimacy between adults.

Aug. 20

In the middle of the night, Florida’s Department of Transportation paints over a rainbow crosswalk made to honor the victims of the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack that left 49 people dead. Advocates respond in protest by installing rainbow-colored bike racks.

Sept. 1

Burkina Faso’s Transitional Legislative Assembly passes a law explicitly criminalizing homosexuality. The law imposes a two- to five-year prison sentence and fines on people convicted of same-sex activity, deepening the criminalization of queer people in West Africa.

Sept. 10

The assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University (UVU) kicks off a wave of anti-trans vitriol, including calls to criminalize the community and designate them as terrorists. In September, Uncloseted Media interviewed five current and former LGBTQ students at UVU. Simone Goodheart, a trans woman who had recently attended the school, spoke about how students were suggesting she was the murderer and how they were harassing her on campus:

“I would say a few of them were asking me to share my school schedule, which thankfully I’m not a student right now. But like damn, if that was the case? A few of them just make awful comments about my appearance, who I am as a person. Basically they just wanted to make sense [of it], but also they wanted to get their outrage out. Because yeah, somebody they cared for died. They are going through the grieving process and like there is outrage and frustration but they were misdirected and misconnected and just utilized by awful algorithms that try to boost the most amount of outrage possible in order to encourage engagement.”

Sept. 26

Slovakia’s parliament passes a constitutional amendment that formally recognizes only two genders, restricts legal gender transition and prohibits adoption by same-sex couples nationwide.

Oct. 6

Bari Weiss hosting a CBS News Town Hall with Erika Kirk. Screenshot/CBS News.

Bari Weiss is appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, making her the first openly gay person to lead the network. Weiss often angles herself as an independent thinker and is known for criticizing the mainstream media. She has no experience in broadcast news and has surrounded herself in controversy, accusing former colleagues at The New York Times of bullying her. She has also railed against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, writing articles with headlines such as “Bari Weiss: End DEI.”

“It is time to end DEI for good. No more standing by as people are encouraged to segregate themselves. No more forced declarations that you will prioritize identity over excellence. No more compelled speech. No more going along with little lies for the sake of being polite.”

Oct. 7

SCOTUS appears poised to rule against a Colorado law that bans the discredited practice of conversion therapy on minors. The justices repeatedly question the state over whether the law hinders free speech.

The high-stakes case could roll back the rights of LGBTQ youth across the country. Colorado is one of more than 20 states that have banned conversion practices, and a ruling in favor of removing the ban could make those laws in other states vulnerable to similar challenges.

Nov. 4

Mamdani in May 2025. Photo by Dmitryshein.

Zohran Mamdani, one of the most outspokenly pro-trans politicians in the country, is elected mayor of New York City. Meanwhile, anti-LGBTQ Republicans are defeated in Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial elections. On the night of his win, Mamdani reaffirms his support for those who elected him:

“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too.”

Nov. 10

Kim Davis’ mugshot. Photo by Carter County Detention Center.

In a massive win for gay rights, SCOTUS rejects Kim Davis’ appeal and won’t revisit the landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. This signifies a major defeat for the new push to overturn the ruling, which was spearheaded by Davis and her lawyers from Liberty Counsel.

Nov. 17

Across Alberta, Canada, anti-trans legislation takes effect. A trans sports ban for students also forces sports organizations and schools to collect sensitive personal information that risks outing trans and gender diverse youth. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces plans to circumvent legal opposition to the province’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors by invoking the notwithstanding clause, a constitutional provision that will stop such challenges for five years. The measure was also used in Alberta in 2000 to advance legislation opposing gay marriage.

Nov. 19

New Zealand’s health minister, Simeon Brown, announces a halt to new prescriptions of puberty blockers for minors with gender dysphoria. Brown says the ban will remain until a British clinical trial is completed. Existing patients can continue treatment.

Nov. 25

The European Union’s (EU) top court rules that member states must recognize same-sex marriages contracted in any EU country for purposes such as residence and free movement, binding more conservative governments such as Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia to acknowledge queer couples’ marital status even if they refuse to perform such marriages at home.

Dec. 2

ADF International, the global arm of U.S. anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, publicly backs a South Australian woman threatening legal action over a Headspace Berri mental-health presentation that mentioned LGBTQ issues, incest and bestiality in a classroom context. Elenie Poulos, an expert on the intersection of religious and political discourses, describes their impact as “huge,” saying:

“They have a very longstanding and aggressive approach to the rights of LGBTIQ people. They fight it in the courts in the US, they fight it politically, locally and in communities, and their aggressive anti-gay stance is extremely harmful.”

Dec. 18

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Oz announce restrictive measures designed to block minors’ access to gender-affirming care. The plan proposes federal Medicare and Medicaid cuts to all hospitals that provide this care to minors. “The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling,” says Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen of The Trevor Project.

Dec. 21

CBS News shelves a planned 60 Minutes segment on men deported to CECOT, an infamous prison in El Salvador. Internal sources indicate that the move to cancel the story came from the network’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who reportedly raised concerns about the Trump administration’s lack of response to the reporter’s outreach.

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Israeli Police Release Settler Filmed Running ATV Over Praying Palestinian in West Bank

https://www.commondreams.org/news/west-bank-atv-attack?share_id=9105227&socialux=facebook&utm_campaign=RebelMouse&utm_content=Common+Dreams&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

A group of Israeli military veterans called his punishment “just a slap on the wrist” and “state-backed impunity for state-backed terror.”

Stephen Prager

Dec 26, 2025

Israeli police have released a soldier from custody after he was filmed running his vehicle over a Palestinian man who was praying outside the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

A silent video of the incident, which both Israeli and Palestinian outlets reported on Thursday, shows an Israeli settler with a rifle slung over his back driving his all-terrain vehicle (ATV) toward a 23-year-old Palestinian man as he knelt in prayer on the roadside.

After barrelling over the man, the settler shouted something in his direction and backed up, then gestured for him to move.

The settler then turned his ATV around, got off, and shouted something at a Palestinian taxi driver. The injured Palestinian man then stood up, approaching the cab. The settler again shooed him off before hopping back on the ATV and speeding away.

Majdi Abu Mokho, the father of the Palestinian man, said his son now has pain in both legs after he was struck.

Mokho told Agence France-Presse: “The assailant is a known settler. He set up an outpost near the village, and with other settlers he comes to graze his livestock, blocks the road, and provokes the residents.”

He also said the settler blinded him with pepper spray after hitting his son, though this is not shown in the video.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the driver as an Israeli reserve soldier with one of its regional defense units. These battalions have dramatically expanded in recent years with backing from Israel’s right-wing government, which contains many officials at the center of the settler movement.

Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli military veterans critical of the occupation of Palestine, has referred to the regional defense units—which have been responsible for many other attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank—as “no more than settler militias in uniform.”

The IDF said the soldier’s weapon has been confiscated and that he’s been suspended due to the “severity of the incident,” which the IDF said it was investigating. The IDF has not released the soldier’s name.

An initial probe found that the same settler had opened fire in the village of Deir Jarir, north of Ramallah, earlier that same day, in an incident that resulted in a young Palestinian man being injured by gunfire.

During that altercation, which was also caught on film, a group of masked settlers was seen hurling rocks at the village’s entrance. According to Palestinian sources who spoke with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the targets of the attack were villagers who were grazing their cattle near their homes.

In another video, a masked man—who the IDF identified as the same reservist responsible for the ATV attack—is seen firing his weapon in the direction of the camera. The IDF said that by opening fire inside the village while in civilian clothes, the soldier had committed a “serious breach of his authority.”

According to the Times of Israel, Israeli police released the settler reservist from custody on Friday. He has been placed under house arrest for five days and is banned from approaching Deir Jarir, where the incident occurred, or from contacting anyone else connected with the case.

The violent incident is the latest in a year that has seen a record number of attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinian villagers.

According to official figures, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,130 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000, since October 2023, when Israel launched its two-year genocide in Gaza following Hamas’ attack.

On the same day as the ATV attack, Israeli police announced that they had arrested five Israeli settlers over their alleged involvement in an ambush against a Palestinian home, which resulted in “moderate injuries to the face and head” of an eight-month-old Palestinian girl, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

While the IDF says it is investigating the ATV attack along with local police, attacks by Israeli settlers are often treated with leniency.

In January 2025, the Israeli watchdog group Yesh Din reported that across more than 1,700 reports of religious or politically motivated hate crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two decades, nearly 94% of them were closed without any indictment being filed, and only 3% resulted in a conviction.

Although there has been a documented rise in killings by Israeli settlers since October 2023, not a single one of those cases has resulted in an indictment, and only about a quarter have resulted in investigations by Israeli authorities.

Critics found the punishment of the reservist to be similarly lackluster and the latest example of settlers’ immunity from justice.

“Israeli reserve soldier intentionally runs over Palestinian praying on the side of the road,” said Rabbi David Mivasair, an activist with the Canadian group Independent Jewish Voices. “His punishment: his weapon was taken away, and he was suspended from the reserves… nothing more.”

Breaking the Silence called the punishment “just a slap on the wrist” and “state-backed impunity for state-backed terror.”

Others noted that nearly 8,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons indefinitely without trial, including in Israel’s “administrative detention” system, which allows them to be confined based on secret evidence that they and their lawyers cannot see.

Israel has justified it as a measure to prevent terrorism. However, in January, the government banned Israeli settlers from being held under those same administrative detention orders, with Defense Minister Israel Katz saying the goal was “to convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the settlements.”

Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian human rights activist, said of the ATV attack: “Had the victim been Israeli and the attacker Palestinian, the sentence would be life in prison. That is why it is called apartheid.”

Following the attack, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reiterated its calls for the US Congress to stop sending military aid to the Israeli government.

“This shocking and dehumanizing act is yet another example of the unchecked violence and abuse Palestinians face daily under Israel’s illegal occupation,” the group said. “Brazenly running over a man while he prays is enabled by a system that grants near-total impunity to illegal settlers. The Trump administration must end its silence and take concrete steps to hold the Israeli government accountable for these ongoing human rights abuses.”

Kristi Noem’s Lies Unravel During Dem’s Grilling

a couple clips about doctors from The Majority Report.

The Doctors On The Frontline Of Israel’s Genocide In Gaza

The good, bad and the ugly

Hello all. I hope you are all having a grand Christmas. I did. I am … yet now I am struggling.

See Ron’s sister has been with us for two weeks and she had been a great grand help. She took over ever duty I had and helped me get back to the blog. Plus she gave Ron a connection to his childhood and his youth. Plus she gave me all her husband’s clothing and we are the same size. So for Christmas I got a complete new wardrobe of shorts / pants / shirts / and dress stuff. I was down to only two ill-fitting pair of old pants that hung off me. So it was a timeless gift. But her help was not done.

She brought big sister energy so while I have tried hard to get Ron to throw out old construction debris that he had piled in several rooms I never could get him to do so. She did. Then she got him to organize and pack away a lot of stuff he was just piling up. I was so happy we got back to a having two rooms that we had lost to just Ron piling things in them. But it gets even better.

She and Ron spent the time looking at places here that might fit her needs so she could be here in the winters instead of being up north and she has found what she wanted, she put in an offer and the people accepted. So she will come stay with us on and off this winter and then next year be here full-time. I love it.

Please understand I never had a caring sibling. I met my wonderful “brother” Randy well into adulthood and Randy is everything an abused kid like myself could every hope for in a supportive sibling. He has been the brother I always wanted … yet never had until a decade ago. But Ron had a tight knit large family who cares for each other and really they do care and love each other. Watching him and Diane this last two weeks has been amazing. In a way I am jealous because no matter how hard they try to include me … they are in a world of their own past. Having Ron’s sister as a part of our lives is going to be grand.

So the adventure begins again. She has already given me ideas on ways she can help if I wish. But I love her ideas.

Now the ugly and bad. Off and on I have been struggling and doing everything to hide it from them. Several times at night both the cat and Ron tried to wake me as I started to yell or scream out. My nightmares have gotten much worse. During the day while they were in the house I would come into my office, shut the door, and breakdown sobbing in tears. I am trying so hard to hold it all together but the memories hurt so bad, they are there always now pushing at the walls I try to build up in my mind. It used to be they were contained but now they are simply there, looking over the wall, shouting at me constantly trying to get my attention.

I did what so many advised and I admitted to my primary care I needed help. He was the first primary care I ever told of my abuse and he impressed me with how he handled the news and me after I told him. But h e sent me to their therapist on staff. But she is a very young woman and she is a behavior therapist and I need a trauma therapist. She is all about how to feel good, such as walk more each day, but I need someone to tell and get help for being a 3-year-old tied to the stair banisters with my arms strung up while I could barely touch the floor. I was nude and sometimes I was blindfolded. Either way I was hit or raped in this position. I need someone to tell these memories to. And it won’t be this 20 year old woman who wants me to think of how I can make my days happier by thinking of sunshine.

So I have tried to do the best I can. Tomorrow Ron will take his sister to the airport and on the way home get the supplies for me to make a tomato spaghetti meal for Randy. Ron will make the meat balls while I make the sauce. I will pretend I am OK and everything is great. Yet inside I will hear the screams of a beaten raped little boy, I will ignore it while I make good for everyone around. And when I lay my head down on the pillow after trying so hard to stop from doing so … the nightmares will come, the memories, the feelings, the screams trying so hard to burst out. And I will control what I can, the cat or Ron will wake me if the noise from my mouth gets too loud. A night of hopefully a bit of rest. Only to wake early in the morning and get up to do it all again. My life, over and over again. Thank you for reading / listening. It is hard to describe what my life is, but maybe this is the best example.

Ron just went to bed. He tried hard to get me to go with him. He knows how hard it is for me and how it is getting harder. The saddest point is he tries to help but doesn’t know how. When I scream out at night he asks if he can hold me knowing that to just grab me or pull me to him will induce more trauma. Having written this with the memories fresh in my mind I am scared to join him in the bedroom. Yet I must. How to finish this post? I never wanted people to feel sorry for me, my life is what it is and what I have tried to make it. Yet the idea of going to bed scares me.

Yes I have a way to end this post. As a kid from 8 to my teen years I would leave the local school and bike to the local town library in our little cow town. I would stay there in safety instead of going home to be abused. The local librarians must have known of my abuse because one of them gave me a book that described what abused boys could do to get help. But like me they were afraid of the big bruiser gorilla that lived in my home that I had to return to. So while I was not allowed to have books at home because that was not what a real boy did, they kept my books behind their desk for me … and every day I was beaten and every night I was raped. But the next day I could go to that town library after school and lose my sore body in the books. But no adult ever became my hero. That was little Scotties life. Good night. Best wishes and hugs.

Yesterdays news I want to share today or …

tRump’s illegal military war crime actions / tRump’s gift to the oil companies that paid him prior / This is a war crime and illegal / tRump trying to get other countries resources for his own profits / tRump grifts and seeking bribes

Trump: We’re Keeping The Seized Oil And Ships

Trump: We Need Greenland For National Protection, I’m Sure We Were There With Boats 300 Years Ago [VIDEO]

It has nothing to do with US national security and all the minerals / traffic rights to make ships pay / and the “rare earth” metals that tRump wants a piece of. It is about profit. Hugs

Fox Host: The Vikings Are Gone, Let’s Seize Greenland

More Donors To President Liberace’s Ballroom Exposed

The paying tribute and bribes to tRump and his slush funds is so anti what the US should and used to stand for. It is the very thing the founding fathers were most against. The courts have gutted the holding of tRump to account but the emoluments cause is what this was designed to stop. Ask yourself if Biden / Obama / Clinton had been so blatant in demanding bribes would you tRump cult supporters be OK with it still? Hugs

Trump: Watch Kennedy Center Honors And Tell Me If I Should Resign To Be “Full Time Master Of Ceremonies”

$40M Melania Film To Premier At Kennedy Center

More Troops And Special Ops Aircraft Near Venezuela

Latest “Drug Boat” Strike Brings Murder Toll To 105

US Special Forces Expected To Board Oil Tanker

Jeff Landry: We’re Not “Trying To Conquer” Greenland

EU Leader Stands With Greenland Against Trump

FCC Bans Foreign Drones (Junior Sells US Drones)

Pentagon Adds Musk’s Pro-Hitler Grok To “Arsenal”

tRump’s handpicked legal lapdogs / tRump legal woes / Canon still protecting tRump / ICE

Judge Blocks Jack Smith’s Final Report (For Now)

The appeals court told her to have it completely wrapped up by the first week of January and this is not doing that. I expect more to happen fast with this. She ignored the appeals court order to please tRump.

Axed “60 Minutes” Prison Abuse Expose Leaks Online

“There was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves,” the college student from Venezuela who sought U.S. asylum, said. “Four guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled until the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall. That was when they broke one of my teeth.”

Bari Weiss Plans To Overhaul CBS News/60 Minutes

Voldemort: Everybody At “60 Minutes” Should Be Fired

New DHS Clip Turns Santa Claus Into ICE Agent

Voldemort Increasingly Targets Children Of Immigrants

Increasingly, he blames their children as well.

Mr. Miller’s belief that seven decades of immigration has produced millions of people who take more than they give — an assertion that has been refuted by years of economic data — is at the heart of the Trump administration’s campaign to restrict immigration and deport immigrants already in the country.

ICE Plans To Hold Over 80,000 Migrants In Warehouses

DOJ Sues After IL Bans ICE Arrests At Courthouses

Texas Builders Say ICE Has Crippled New Construction

Stupidity beyond belief and why do people believe it / Never challenge the dear leader / Cult of tRump

Trump: I’m Bringing Down Drug Prices By 3000%

Trump Screams That NY Times “Must Be Stopped”

Trump: Stephen Colbert Should Be “Put To Sleep”

Trump Shares Call To Have GOP Georgia Gov Arrested

Trump: Terminate Network Licenses For Criticizing Me

Hate / Bigotry / Racism / White Supremacy / Christian Nationalism /

Oklahoma Instructor Fired In “The Bible Says So” Idiocy

Fulnecky has been trying to leverage her idiocy into a career as a MAGA influencer.

Erika Kirk Plugs Charlie’s Book In Xmas Message

tRump trying to hold on to power illegally / Jan 6th insurrectionists / trying to change the history everyone seen live / Scamming / Using the US treasury & taxpayer funds to pay off tRump cult members.

Extremists To March On US Capitol “For Ashli Babbitt”

The U.S. Air Force will provide Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt with military funeral honors, reversing a Biden-era decision that denied her family’s request, according to a legal group that has represented her family.

In June 2025, the Pentagon agreed to pay the Babbitt family a $5 million “wrongful death” settlement. Below, see the latest from Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who is himself reportedly suing the DOJ for $100 million.